


All the Lonely Strings

by chickenwingz



Category: Hunger Games Trilogy - Suzanne Collins
Genre: 74th Hunger Games, Book/Movie 1: The Hunger Games, Careers (Hunger Games), F/M, Hunger Games, Hunger Games-Typical Death/Violence
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-01-15
Updated: 2021-02-05
Packaged: 2021-03-13 07:00:14
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,418
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28774224
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/chickenwingz/pseuds/chickenwingz
Summary: Romee is a Victor, a Mentor - the pride of District 2. It's her job to pick the tributes she'll mentor for her district. It's not an easy gig and Cato Hadley only complicates things. Romee must keep her head on straight as Cato tries to unravel her.Alternative title: District 2 Finally Gets the World Building It Deserves
Relationships: Cato (Hunger Games)/Original Female Character(s)
Comments: 3
Kudos: 8





	1. Chapter 1

“What about a sponge?” 

Brutus scoffed. 

“Are you kidding me? That’s too easy.” 

I raised my eyebrow at him. 

“Shove it down their throat until they stop breathing.” 

I laughed and threw my pen at him. He easily swatted it away and it narrowly missed where Nuran sat. He didn’t even flinch, only glaring at the desk before him. I shared a look with Brutus. It would seem District 2’s newest victor was not ready to play nice today. I could see Buruts begin to tense up, but Lyme called everyone to attention before he could implode on the poor boy. Again. 

Nuran had been having a hard time since his games. The victory tour hadn’t helped that either. He had a breakdown during District 4’s visit and we had to delay travel for two days. Thankfully, we were able to lie about the reasoning for the delay and everything continued as normal except that Nuran was heavily sedated for the rest of the tour. Once we had gotten back, he was stripped of the peaceful drugs and the crash had been hard. Lyme, ever the drill sergeant, had helped me get him back to as close to normal as we could. That meant that Brutus was not allowed near him after the first, and we made sure the last, outburst. 

Brutus came from an older generation that thought winning the games was something to be proud of and that to sulk about winning and what you had done in the arena was disrespectful to those who died so you could come back home. I hated to agree with Brutus, but I understood the latter part. Regardless, Brutus and Nuran were kept separated from each other until now. 

“You’ll have 3 days to observe the candidates up for tribute nomination and offer your insight. The final decision will be up to the mentors. This year’s mentors will be Brutus and Romee.” 

I was unsurprised. No one particularly liked mentoring aside from Brutus and the newest victors were often left to mentor. Enobaria had been thrilled when I won two years ago. She hated people, even her own tributes. I had taken over last year as a mentor and Nuran had been my tribute. He had been the second choice for volunteering, but our first choice had broken his arm the day before the reaping. Of course, it was rumored he had pissed some of the other boys off and they had broken his arm in his last year of being eligible to keep him from ever getting to compete. Nonetheless, Nuran had been chosen to volunteer. 

Even with Nuran being second choice, he was the one slated to win in everyone’s minds. Mentoring him had been easy and it came natural to me to get him sponsors. District 2 had won the previous two games and we were eager to keep the streak going. It was unspoken, but Nuran was not fit to mentor and everyone knew it. He barely reacted to the news that he wouldn’t have to mentor. It was what Lyme said next that finally invoked a reaction.

“Of course, Nuran, you will also be going with the tributes and mentors to the capital. They expect the newest victor’s attendance.”

He finally lifted his head and stared at Lyme with a blank expression. I made a silent mental note to set up his surveillance rotation again. 

Lyme stared at him for only a moment longer before turning to Brutus and I. 

“You two already know this, but you’ll have a chance to meet with all of the candidates in person as part of the vetting process. I assume you’ll be mentoring the female tribute again, Brutus?” 

Brutus nodded his head. Brutus has too much testosterone to mentor the male tributes. Enobaria compared it to putting two bulls in a ring.

“Great. Then we can move on to the first evaluation. Follow me.” 

Brutus and I followed directly behind Lyme, the rest of the victor committee trailing behind us. 

District 2 had the most victors of all of the districts with 17 in total. Enobaria was the last female victor before I won ten years later. Brutus was our oldest victor on the vetting committee, those who came before him no longer interested in the choosing ceremony. It was only my second year and I could understand their reluctance to be involved - the ceremony was really just a series of repetitive tasks and was completely boring for the mentors. Nonetheless, there were 11 of us who served on the vetting committee and therefore tasked with picking the trainees who would volunteer to become tributes. 

We arrived at the gym and I watched as Nuran hesitated at the door before turning and walking away, not meeting any of our eyes. It was just as well, he was only on the committee to keep up appearances anyways. 

Brutus and I sat in the middle of the table and I scanned the trainees in front of us. Only those in the 16-18 age group were allowed to appear before the committee for the chance to volunteer. I had volunteered at 16 and I only recognized a couple of faces from my time as a trainee. In the training center, you only trained with your age group and there were barely a handful of 18 year olds, my age now, left vying for the shot to volunteer. 

“Good morning.” Lyme spoke into the microphone. Like trained militia, the trainees responded in kind from where they stood in neat lines. 

“I’m proud to see you all standing before me and this committee, willing to prove yourselves worthy of representing this district in the 74th annual Hunger Games. You will compete for honor and glory if chosen, but first you must prove your worth by presenting your strength and cunning to us by way of a series of evaluations. The final decision is to be made by this year’s mentors, Brutus and Romee.” 

The trainees burst into applause and a few wolf whistles were made. I only rolled my eyes in response, clicking my pen and organizing the profiles in front of me. 

“Then our first evaluation will begin, please do your best.” 

We watched as, one-by-one, the trainees tackled the difficult obstacle course set up for them. Day 1 was all about their agility and strength. 

“Check out the slacker.” Brutus whispered to me. I followed Brutus’ line of sight to a trainee that was running behind the rest of the pack. I made a dramatic tsk sound and flipped through the male’s profiles to find him. I made a big show of taking the red marker and putting an X through his picture. Brutus was in stitches at my display and Lyme shot us a look of disapproval. I held in my laugh and pretended to look more serious. Brutus didn’t even try. 

Another reason Brutus and I were mentors together? We shared the same sense of humor. It kept us sane through the games and served us well afterwards as mentors. 

I flipped my binder of profiles to the next page and felt my breath catch, quickly looking up to where the trainees were still running as part of the endurance testing. There, leading the pack, was Cato Hadley. Only sixteen, he showed amazing potential. I had heard the trainers’ gush about his abilities - how focused he was on his training and becoming a tribute. And yet, of course, I couldn’t help but remember him as the sweet boy who had lived down the road from me and boasted about following me into training one day. That was before his mother had died. 

I nudged Brutus, pushing my binder towards him. He glanced down at the page and repeated my action of finding Cato in the crowd. He raised his eyebrows as if to say, “Your money’s on him?” 

I just nodded, sliding my binder back to me. 

Day 1 of training was filled with bets between mentors as to who will make it. I didn’t need to bet this year. I just knew. 

Cato Hadley would be our tribute.


	2. Chapter 2

_“Are you sure you can’t come up before the games?”_

_I had let out a laugh that sounded fake to my own ears._

_“You know I have responsibilities here.”_

_He had sighed and I held the receiver away from my ear, stomach turning at the sound._

_“Well we’ll just have to make do then. Maybe you’ll have a new female victor soon and I can keep you here all to myself.” He suggested._

_I had to keep from groaning aloud as I responded with a half-hearted, “Sure, Keilus.”_

I rubbed the back of my neck, eyes closed in a moment of peace to break myself out of reliving my earlier phone call. I knew Keilus wanted me to settle down in the capitol with him, but it was the last thing in the world that I wanted. I found myself, not for the first time, wondering how my life had come to this - constantly finding ways to evade Keilus and prolong the inevitable. It almost made me thankful for the distraction of the evaluations. Almost. 

The second day of evaluations were more individualized than the last and dealt more with trainee’s areas of specialization. It made for a long and more thorough day of sorting out who hit the mark and who didn’t. They had already narrowed the amount of tributes from around 30 to a whopping 17. Today focused on narrowing that number even further so that interviews weren’t overloaded on the mentors. 

Lyme looked down at the tally in front of her. The top five of each gender remained the same as yesterday with only slight variations in positioning. Clove had managed to jump from third place to first and I eyed Cato’s name in the first place position for the boys. It was well deserved in my opinion. The guy radiated power. 

“Individual interviews with each of the candidates will take place tomorrow so only the mentors need to come. Good job today.”

The mentors nodded and began to disperse, joking and shoving each other on their way out. Nuran was still a no-show, but I knew his mom was watching out for negative signs. She was a tough woman who could handle even her son. 

Brutus nudged my shoulder and I followed him, eyebrows creased. He motioned for me to be quiet as we entered the training center. He nodded to where a figure diligently was throwing knives into the dummies. I was shocked at her persistence. This hadn’t been a physically easy day by any means and yet she was pushing herself to train into the night. 

“That’s our female volunteer.” Brutus whispered, his eyes shining in excitement. “Haven’t been this excited about our chances since you.” 

I smiled softly at the compliment, which was far and inbetween with Brutus. I gave him a pat on the shoulder and left him to make my way towards the exits. My days of staying late into the night to train were over and I missed the soreness of the muscles after a night of nonstop training, but I was grateful that I’d never have to work that hard to defend myself physically ever again. 

As I rounded another stairwell, I locked eyes with a male figure making his way up. I felt the shock course up my spine. Cato Hadley. 

He broke out into a smirk upon noticing that he had my attention and I arranged my features to hide my shock. 

“It’s late, shouldn’t you be getting rest before your interview tomorrow, Mr. Hadley?” I put on my best stern voice. 

His smirk only grew wider into a cocky smile. 

“I’m not worried about the interview.” 

I raised my eyebrow.

“Cocky?” 

His stance was wide, assured. 

“Confident.” He corrected me. “Especially since you’re the one I’m interviewing with.” 

“What’s that supposed to mean?” 

He took a step closer so that he was eye level with me yet still two stairs below me.

“It’s only natural for any guy to get nervous around you. Youngest mentor to bring back a victor on her first try, beautiful, intelligent, highly skilled...” He sighs woefully, “and yet completely un-immune to my charms.” 

I couldn’t help it. I laughed at him. 

“And just where did you come up with that?” 

He took a step closer until he was on the landing and at the same level as me, towering over me and I involuntarily took a step back to gain distance that he quickly invaded. 

“The way you watch me.” He breathed.

I held my breath, not making eye contact. 

“It’s my job to observe the trainees.” 

He shook his head slowly, looking like he wanted to push it more but he bit his lip and then chuckled.

“I’ll let you deny it for now.” He leaned closer. “But I know you and Brutus are going to pick me to volunteer and when I win and become a victor, you will no longer belong to fucking Keilus Klimte.” 

I looked up at him in shock. He just stared back. 

“I’ve wanted you for a long time Romee. I’ll give you the time you need, but you don’t belong with him and I’m going to prove it to you.” 

Whether it was just from exhaustion or hormones or the fact that someone was acknowledging the hell I was going through, it was hard to hold back the sudden tears that sprung to my eyes. It had been too long of a day. 

He stared at my watering eyes and brought his hand up to my face as if to touch it. The loud bang of a door in the stairwell above us made me jump and he chuckled. 

“Always something in the way.” 

I looked at him in confusion. He touched my cheek lightly and I startled. 

“See you tomorrow, Romee.” He whispered before maneuvering himself around me, brushing gently against my side, and made his way up the stairs. My body moved on autopilot as I took the last remaining flights and made it to the outside. I let the fresh air into my lungs and cursed that the heat was not as refreshing as a cool breeze would be. 

Cato Hadley. The boy who had declared upon meeting me for the first time at the age of 5 that he would marry me, had apparently not forgotten his promise.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading!

**Author's Note:**

> To my friend Reanna who urged me to actually sit down and write this thing, thank you. I hope everyone else enjoys me working out my frustration of not having more insight to the career districts. If any information goes against canon, my apologies and please just ignore canon a bit. I'll hopefully update each Friday. Happy Hunger Games...


End file.
